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You can examine their fashion, make fun of their legislative issues, and even complain about the trash, but Italian food is completely off the table.
Because of this, a recent meeting with Alberto Grandi, a food history professor who has sparked controversy. Grandi, who has long questioned the authenticity of Made in Italy staples like carbonara, Parmesan, and even pizza, asserts that the insecurity that motivates Italians’ food aversion stems from their insatiable appetite. He suggested that the food belief system that so many Italians adhere to is based on fictitious practices, saying, “When a locality is denied of its feeling of personality, in light of anything verifiable shock or crack with its past, it concocts customs to go about as establishing fantasies.”
He went on to say, “Italian cooking is really more American than Italian,” which is hard to believe for Italians who frequently make fun of America’s cheap food culture.
For good reason, the Italian government has a bad taste in their mouths when they question the authenticity of the richness of Italy’s cuisine.
In addition, the government has stated that they will appoint a culinary czar to assist Italian restaurants and food producers in adhering to the standards and traditions of the country’s culinary history. The ministers of culture and agriculture in Italy officially submitted Italian cuisine for consideration as a candidate for UNESCO World Heritage Site status on the same day that Grandi’s article rocked the kitchens of Italy’s top chefs. The outcome of the decision will be made in December 2025.
“Mosaic of relics”: The UNESCO candidacy, which was based on a “combination of social practices, rituals, and gestures based on the many local flavors that, without hierarchy, identify it,” was revealed at a press conference on March 23 by Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano and Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida.
In addition, in 2023, the ministries submitted an application to include Italian cuisine on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The Ministry of Culture’s undersecretary, Gianmarco Mazzi, stated, “We hope it will see collective participation.” We have two years to market our food throughout Italy and the world. A dossier about the “mosaic of traditions” was written by professor Pier Luigi Petrillo of Rome Luiss University. According to him, the “mosaic of traditions” “reflects the country’s biocultural diversity and is based on the common denominator of conceiving the moment of preparation and consumption of the meal as an occasion for sharing and talking.” The group presented the dossier.
The main problem is that Grandi’s current popular theories about Italian food, like that the best Roman pasta dish carbonara is actually American invention and that authentic Italian Parmesan has changed so much from custom that you can only find anything close to what it should be in Wisconsin, USA, undercut the choice.
Grandi stated to the publication La Repubblica that the dossier for the UNESCO application contained “a lot of bullsh*t” and that he actually worries that Italy might be awarded the coveted designation for its food.
What takes place in the event that we receive it? He expressed, “The individuals who like it will keep on doing as such, and the people who could do without it will keep on doing as such.”
The dishes change. Tastes change.
He likewise made sense of for CNN why he keeps on being so dedicated to this reason. He asserts that the dossier is based on recipes, not roots, and that the essence of this designation is not whether or not carbonara contains mushrooms; rather, it is about the significance of cuisine to the culture.
“UNESCO is not giving the designation for the recipes,” he stated to CNN. The investigation is philosophical rather than gastronomic.
He finds the expression, “Italian emigrants taught people how to cook and eat,” offensive. “They emigrated because they were poor and had nothing to eat here,” he stated. At the time they left, they were starving. Differently painting it would offend our grandparents.
Likewise, that’s what he said “taking shape” or freezing Italian food will kill it. If, as he maintains, pizza improved when Italian immigrants to the United States adapted the traditional recipe with American additions like tomato sauce, then this should be acknowledged for what it is and where it originated.
He attests that since something is Italian doesn’t mean it will constantly be awesome. Dislike it if I put a dancing pony on a Fiat Panda and turn it into a Ferrari,” he declares. History does not give legitimacy to current events.
He is also somewhat surprised by the outrage generated by his meeting and the Monetary Times’ subsequent research. By asking Grandi’s family about the first time they ate pizza and how various staples were made, the author, who is also Italian, was able to back up a lot of what Grandi said.
“Recipes shift. He stated that tastes change. I do not make any sales; my responsibility is to be a student of history.
However, not everyone is in agreement that the actual food has very little to do with culinary tradition.
